Community Building with Technology

Karine, Rebecca and Holly

Learning Communities

• In general, what makes a community?

• What makes a learning community?1. Membership and responsibility2. Respectful and affirming feedback3. Common purpose

What makes a community succeed?

Dynamic Learning Community

Dialectical Process

• Thesis, Antithesis, synthesis– Drinking Age

– Knowledge Forum

Knowledge Building Theory (KB)

• Created by Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia in 2003

• Sharing, group discussions and synthesis of ideas to create collective knowledge

• Teacher=guideIdea=mediumTechnology=platformStudents= learners and teachers

Knowledge Building Communities

Learning Communities

+Knowledge Building Theory

=Knowledge Building Communities

Knowledge Building Communities

Rise aboveImprovable IdeasDiversity of ideasEpistemic agency

Pervasive knowledgeCollective Knowledge

Democratizing knowledgeAuthentic problems and ideasKnowledge Building Discourse

Symmetric knowledge advancementConstructive Use of Authoritative Sources

Concurrent, embedded and transformative Assessment(

E-pals

• www.epals.com

• “My contact in Israel has not only become a very valuable educational resource, but the teacher there and her students have become dear, dear friends. Through this website, children around the world are getting to personally know and appreciate each other. Differences in faith, culture and traditions are being appreciated, not feared.”

Debbie B. St. Peter Celestine Catholic School in Cherry Hill, USA

• Cross cultural• Class-to-class projects• Safe and free• No software

Classroom Resources

Blogs and Wikis International CommunitiesBroaden Perspective- Expand Thinking- Complex

Mental Models

International Communities

Learning Circles online projects-outcome is document or collection

iEARN Learning Circles http://www.iearn.org/circles/

My Hero Bakrajo Agricultural High School

school #4 Novosibirsk Mr. Kramer’s Class

International Communities cont’d

Global Schoolhouse collaborative projects sharing information with schools from other parts of the world

Letters to SantaEpals.com safely connect,

collaborate, and learn using leading email and blog solutions for schools and districtsDhruvKritiMegan

Teacher Communities

• Engage in professional development

• Informal, collaborative activities with colleagues

Teachade.com

Why?

“Learning does not happen when students are unable to express their ideas, emotions, confusions, ignorance and prejudices…Only when the teacher,

the students and the subject can be woven together into the fabric of a community will it have the chance to happen” Parker Palmer (The

Courage to Teach)

• Increased Commitment in school• Less behavior issues• Increased positive school climate• Improved attendance• Increased mastery of subject material

(Hawkins, 1999; Malecki and Elliot, 2002)

“No significant learning occurs without a significant relationships”Dr. James Comer (Leave No Child Behind)